Secret Salon Series


We are delighted to announce our Secret Salon Series, offering immersive cultural experiences that merge art, education, science, music, and nature in unexpected ways. Events are held at Secret Headquarters, our beautiful studio in East Vancouver, home to hundreds of enchanting lanterns as seen at our Annual Winter Solstice Festival.

Earth Bound and Heaven Scent

April 12 from 6:00pm to 8:00pm PDT

Overview

Follow your nose into the world of mushrooms with artists and sensory explorers Isabelle Kirouac and Willoughby Arévalo.

Event Description

Follow your nose into the world of mushrooms with artists and sensory explorers Isabelle Kirouac and Willoughby Arévalo. Experimenting with mushroom-inspired scents, we’ll enter the mysterious realm of volatile molecules and open our noses by classifying mushrooms on an aromatic wheel of fungi. We’ll engage in drawing games and creative writings inspired by these unique aromas, so get ready to experience olfactory delight, disgust and surprise!

Event Notes / Be Prepared:

  • Tickets are available by sliding scale: $20-$40. Suggested admission: $25.

  • Doors open at 5:30 PM and the event will start promptly at 6:00 PM. Please do your best to be on time as late arrivals will be disruptive to activities in progress.

  • Your donation contributes directly to supporting our on-going programs of collaborative learning and cultural sharing. If you have financial barriers preventing you from attending, please email admin@secretlantern.org and we will do our best to accommodate your needs.

We thank you for your support!

Artist Bio:

The Art & Fungi Project is a series of artistic projects led by Willoughby Arévalo and Isabelle Kirouac. These projects provide sensory and playful experiences in relation to fungi and how they shape and connect our world, growing the interconnections between communities, the land, and its more-than-human inhabitants.

Willoughby Arévalo
With the hands of an artist, the eyes of a mycologist and the heart of a deeply connected human, DIY Mushroom Cultivation author Willoughby Arévalo brings the practical and the joyful together through the science and wonder of mycology. His work is an invitation; to not only learn from fungi, but to grow one’s true earthly relationships. His lifelong friendship with fungi has led him down a mycelial pathway. For over 15 years, he has shared mycology with communities across North America and Europe.

Isabelle Kirouac explores the poetics of the senses and more-than-human relationships through immersive experiences, social choreography and community-engaged work. With over 20 years of practice in dance improvisation and somatics, Isabelle's work is rooted in the body. She studied scent at the Institute for Art & Olfaction and slow perfumery with Mandy Aftel, widely acclaimed as a trailblazer in natural perfumery. Isabelle holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from the School for Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University and has shared her artistic practice across four continents.